Ball in Europe, the European Basketball Blog

The WNBA’s Atlanta Dream yesterday announced they’d acquired the rights to BallinEurope fave Team Hungary/MiZo Pécs guard Dalma Iványi from the San Antonio Silver Stars for center Michelle Snow.

Iványi is currently good for a line of 11.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game in the Hungarian league; in 13 games’ worth of Euroleague Women play, she was good for 7.6 ppg and a sliver under 7.5 rpg. Iványi really crashed the sports headlines last week when she went for a triple-double of 24/11/10 against EL final four team Wisla Can-Pack.

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Here’s a quick YouTube fix for you if you need it this morning: Highlights and post-game revelry from Wednesday night’s FIBA Euroleague Women final eight game which saw Wisla Can-Pack advance by defeating Frisco Sika Brno, 78-73. Either way, the match was fated to be the last EL game in Poland, with the ladies now going into the Final Four playoffs; Janell Burse and the Wisla women did not disappoint.

Damn, they get *up* for their girls in Krakow – no joke, these devotees have got to be the closest thing to the Pionir faithful that EL Women has…

(Video follows the break.)

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Burse drives Wisla Can-Pack

In the final remaining game of the Euroleague Women quarterfinal playoffs going down tonight between Frisco Sika Brno and Wisla Can-Pack, it’s not a question of whether an improbable run will continue but rather *which* improbable run.

Brno has faced elimination on three occasions in this tournament already, the most recent coming in game two of this round last Wednesday when the Czech side defended homecourt and, oh, what the hell, here’s the entire FIBA Europe writeup:

Frisco Sika Brno earned a decisive game three in their Quarter-Final Play-Off series with Wisla Can-Pack Krakow, handing their Polish opponents an 87-72 loss.

Brno dominated the third and fourth quarters, leading by as many as 24 with five minutes left in the game.

Eva Viteckova led the way for the Czechs with 25 points on five of eight shooting from behind the three-point line. Taj McWilliams added 20 points and nine rebounds.

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Salamanca's big dreams up to Lyttle

The Euroleague Women’s “Eighth-final playoffs” conclude tonight with three best-of-three series looking to be settled. Teams already set to play in EL Women quarterfinals include Spartak Moscow region, Fenerbahce Ulker, UMMC Ekaterinburg, Good Angels Kosice, and Ros Casares.

The winner of tonight’s Halcon Avenida-Bourges Basket match will see Ros Casares in the next round; surely to be considered a favorite to take the entire competition, Ros Casares has outscored opponents by an average 16 points in 15 Euroleague Women games played thus far. A quarterfinal pairing of Ros Casares against Halcon Avenida seems like a dream matchup of star teams – except that the Salamanca side has been stumbling as of late.

Despite a roster featuring Team Spain sensations Marta Xargay and Alba Torrens together with all-around threat Sancho Lyttle (averaging 17.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 2.4 steals per in 12 Euroleague Women games), Halcon Avenida finds its backs against the wall despite a recent five-game win streak in which Salamanca thrice outscored opponents by 18 or more. The last of that opposition was Bourges, who pulled off the gritty home win over the heavy favorites last Friday.

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Burse has Krakow on top

With four games down in the ten-game FIBA Euroleague Women 2009-10 first round, the playoff picture is taking early shape and more than a few surprises – pleasant and otherwise – have graced play thus far. In the “disappointing” column can definitely be entered Mizo Pécs 2010, early considered one of the favorites to be playing in this league’s Final Four, is a limp 1-3 and has dug itself quite the hole behind Beretta Famila Schio, Halcon Avenida Salamanca and Wisla Can-Pack Krakow. (In fact, as the very pride of Hungary in international team sport, the Hungarian women’s basketball teams have combined for a depressing 3-7 in Euroleague play.)

Krakow may be considered this edition’s Cinderella story; thanks to the CSKA Moscow club’s financial difficulties, the ladies’ Red Army team had to drop out of the 2009-10 season just before it began. Enter Krakow, originally slated for Eurocup Women play and consequently deemed to be “top ranking team not involved in the tournament” when CSKA bailed. All the Krakovians have done thus far is go 4-0 while averaging just under 82 points per game in the last three; Janell Burse is running up one heck of a statistical season for Krakow, with 14.8 points and a league-leading 12.5 rebounds per game.

Completely unsurprising is the season Diana Taurasi is putting together with Spartak Moscow region; leading the league in scoring at 23.0 ppg, the perpetual Team USA representative is in the top ten in seven Euroleague Women statistical categories. As a result, Spartak has won three of three with a 21-point average margin of victory – imagine Taurasi’s numbers if she’d been kept on the court for more than 10 minutes per game.

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Phew! Hopefully people were betting big point spreads in the Euroleague’s first game day as Montepaschi Siena, Barcelona, Olympiacos and Zalgiris notched easy victories by an average of more than 27 points. More on Euroleague as well as bigger than Jordan; a new basketball film; new players soon coming to Europe; a German star talent; and why Euroleague did not want to watch Maroussi-CSKA highlights.
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As though there were any doubt that the global economic crisis is affecting professional sports worldwide, FIBA Europe today brings news that confirms fears.

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FIBA Euroleague Women’s basketball doesn’t start until late October, but the season officially kicked off today with the ceremonial draws of groupings for both Euroleague and EuroCup Women competitions.

In Euroleague Group A, it’s Cras Basket Taranto; TEO Vilnius; Ros Casares; TTT Riga; UMMC Ekaterinburg; and Galatasaray. Group B has Gospic Croatia Osiguranje; CSKA Moscow; MiZo Pécs; Beretta Famila Schio; Halcon Avenida; and ESB Villeneuve.

Group C features KS AZS-PWSZ Gorzow; Maxima Broker Kosice; Bourges Basket; ZVVK USK Prague; MKB Euroleasing Sopron; and Rivas Ecopolis, while Group D squares off Szeviep Szeged; Gambrinus Brno; Fenerbahçe; Lotos Gdynia; Spartak Moscow Region; Tarbes.

Eurocup Women West Region sees a Group A with USO Mondeville; Sierre Basket; Seat Foton Györ; and AD Vagos. Group B has Gran Canaria; Medvescak Zagreb; Dexia Namur; and Olivais FC. In Group C, it’s Lattes Montpellier; Lemminkainen; MBK Ruzomberok; and CAB Madeira. Group D sports Puig den Valls Ibiza; Nyon Basket; CCC Polkowice; and TV Saarlouis Royals. And in Group E, squaring off will be Mann Filter Zaragoza; Jolly JBS Sibenik; and Wisla Can-Pack.

Eurocup Women East Region contains a Group F with Athinaikos; Chevakata Vologda; Besiktas; and Hatis Yerevan. Group G has Dunav Econt; Dynamo Moscow; Hapoel Tel Aviv; and CSS-LMK Sf. Gheorghe. In Group H, it’s KV Imperial AEL; Dynamo Kursk; Samsung Basketball (Turkey); and Municipal Targoviste. Group I features Apollon Kalamarias; Nadezhda Orenburg; Botas Spor; and ICIM Arad. And in Group J, it’ll be Paleo Faliro; Spartak Noginsk and KK Hemofarm.

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FIBA Europe yesterday officially released the list of 24 clubs, including eight new entries, that will participate in the 2009-10 edition of FIBA Euroleague Women. The 24 teams will be divided into four pools, with groupings to be determined next Tuesday.

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